Piece By Piece

I know that this barn is still used because I've seen machinery through the doors opposite the side seen here.  I would love to go into this barn because I can imagine the light and shadows would make for interesting designs on the walls and floor.  I don't know if the ranchers and farmers that own these structures can't afford to tear them down or don't have the time, but I'd like to think they are as fascinated as I am in their slow demise.  I would also think there is quite a lot of useful wood, especially in this one, which is pretty big.

I usually hate to see piles of junk in rural areas, especially old cars and machinery, even though I understand they may be kept for parts.  I know the farm my father kept was always tidy, so I guess he set my standards. However, these old structures strike me differently, and I always feel I've found a treasure when I come across one.

The Sky Is Falling!

This barn in the Idaho Palouse caught my eye during my last visit.  It's difficult to know if it was well built because it is holding itself up after some sort of confrontation with something or if it was not all that well built and is imploding on itself.  Perhaps its builder forgot to put in all the fasteners at one critical junction.  Or perhaps aliens were lobbing angry birds at various targets in the open fields.  

Regardless, the barn spends its life now as time's plaything.  

I have begun a series of paintings as a kind of portrait of these mostly abandoned structures.  I find them as beautiful as they are disturbing.

Crashing Barns

I was raised on a farm in Illinois and I loved the barn.  Actually, we had several barns for different uses - one for the dairy cattle, one for hay, one for machinery, etc.  I spent a lot of time in them, even though I had hay fever as a boy and being in the barn meant spasms of sneezing and wheezing.  I'd find litters of feral kittens, I'd jump from what seemed great heights onto relatively soft mounds of loose hay, and I'd play with friends among the several levels of stacks of grain being used up.  

As I travel about Idaho, I often see barns or other out buildings simply abandoned after their effective uses were over.  I'm certain there are stories for each structure, either about their uses, or about the dreams associated with the building's construction, or stories of boys playing within them, perhaps getting into trouble or hurting themselves or at the least creating memories still enfolded in the creases of their minds.  

For me, and others who just pass them by, they take on a kind of charged imagery.  They reflect our own gradual passing into a used up condition and they stir our fear of abandonment.  They are just left out there, to decay in public and they aren't even taken apart for firewood.

I'm glad they aren't.  There is a strange beauty to them for me.  I've started a series of paintings of some of the ones I've come across in the countryside and I'm calling the series "Crashing Barns".  Instead of looking passive, they look more as if they have been assaulted - dropped from the sky, hit by a meteor, tripped over a stump, exploded, or imploded.  Often they fall apart as if time itself has repeatedly flown by and ripped off another board.  

I will have four of these paintings at my gallery in Boise for January in the new year.  Come down to 403 S 8th St to see them if you are in Boise.

Horseshoe Bend Valley

One of Idaho's most stunning valleys lies just north of Boise.  The tiny town of Horseshoe Bend naps at the very bottom of a huge bowl carved out by the Payette River.  That bowl forms the "horseshoe bend" the river makes as it weaves westward after coming in from the north.  The entire valley on all sides could be a lifetime of painting since every acre contains a nearly unlimited mix of form and lines.  The valley is mostly undeveloped, aside from the town of Horseshoe Bend, with a few ranches scattered in the lower areas.  Unfortunately, some homes have been built into the southwestern part of the bowl.  They have their view, but for the rest of us they have marred the real view, which is the whole valley.  There has been no attempt to blend in these homes with the terrain, so they stick out like warts.  That's a major reason I paint places like Horse Bend Valley, because they will slowly change.

You can view the painting above at the Lisk/Rowe Gallery in downtown Boise at 403 S 8th Street.

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Grand Opening of our new gallery space in downtown Boise in BoDo!

Come join Mark, Jerri and me this thursday for the Gallery Walk at 401 S 8th Street, right across the street from Cafe Ole.  It is a wonderful space that feels more like a home than a gallery.  Each wall has its own color and texture and the artwork looks terrific.  We are excited by this move and look forward to being in a more vibrant and active area of downtown.  There are four galleries in this one block, so art is definitely a focus of the area.  We will be there from 5 - 9 p.m., so come in and see our new home.  

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The Last First Thursday

The Rowe/Lisk Gallery is moving!  The September First Thursday will be our last at the 850 Main Street location.  Come on down to the gallery and help us say goodbye to a wonderful space.  We'll have new artwork on display from all of us, music, wine and lots of smiles.  We are moving to BoDo starting in October, so we'll have a grand opening then.  For now, come to our Grand Closing this Thursday from 5 - 9 p.m.  

Trees At The Gallery

August First Thursday continues my showing at the Lisk/Rowe Gallery of paintings of mine that feature trees.  Done over several years, these paintings have rarely been exhibited.   

Trees  often take on a personality, not a human personality, but a distinct character as seen by humans.  That old phrase; "You can't see the forest for the trees" can be reversed; "You can't see the trees for the forest".  Just as we as individuals get lost in crowds and statistics, the forms, shapes and idiosyncrasies of singular trees or small groups of trees get lost in great swathes of forest.  

I hope you will come down to the gallery at 850 Main Street to see these paintings.